News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1887-02-03
GATHERING SPRUCE GUM
HOW THE AROMATIC PRODUCT IS
COLLECTED FOR MARKET.
Collected in Eastern and Canadian
Forests-Boston and Chicago the
Leading Consumers

Collected in Eastern and Canadian
Forests-Boston and Chicago the
Leading Consumers.
A New York dealer in spruce gum
said to a .Sua reporter: "The supply of
natural gum is very large, and would
be still larger if it were not that the
spruce forests where it is obtained have
been so thinned out by the inroads of
the lumbermen that the gum gatherer
cannot obtain the quantities that he
could in former years. One of the prln-
cipal occupations in Bennington, Vt, IS
the dealing in spruce gum, and Belfast,
Augusta, and other places in Maine make
an important item Of this product in
their trading.
'It is no uncommon thing to see men,
women and children coming into these
PLACES laden with all they can carry of
the aromatic spruce gum, and why
shouldn't they? 1t is worth to them 81
a pound in cash. Some men will bring
in on their backs as much as 200 pounds
of the material, all ready to be put in
form for the mouths of those who like 1t.
Dealers in Augusta say that the retail
trade in spruce gum in that city alone
foots up over So, 0J0 year. The largest
spruce gum dealer in the world is in
bennington. He handles between Is, 600
and 10000 pounds year. He employs
not less than seventy-fve persons to col
lect gum for him in the season, which is
from October to June. The business
cannot be carried on in the summer as
the hot weather causes the gum to run
together, and form in masses that i'm
pair its appearance and cause it to de-
teriorate in value.
Spruce gum is obtained in the forests
of Canada, Maine, New Hampshire and
Vermont. The gum gatherers so many
miles into the forest, erect rude cabins,
and each one remains until he has gath
cred one hundred pounds. He carries it
home, where the women and children
cleanse the gum from all its impurities,
such as bark, twigs and other foreign
substances, and sort it into the different
grades, all of which are known even by
the youngest child in the business. 1t is
big days work for a woman to clean
and sort ten pounds. While the house
hold is cleansing his collection the gum
gatherer returns to the woods and works
until he has secured another batch, and
getting it is no easy or rapid work. The
gatherer goes through the woods looking
at the virgin spruces. When the gum
that forms on the outside of the trees is
once removed the tree will never again
yield enough to make it worth the while
of the gatherer to visit it. So he must
hunt out the trees tnat have escaped the
notice of his class during all the years
the woods have been searched by them.
The gum gatherer carries a stout pole,
which is in sections, like iointed fish
ing rod. At one end of the pole is
chisel fitted snugly to the wood. Beneath
the chisel is a cup holding probably half
a pint. When the gatheIer discovers a
mass of gum on tree, no matter how
high it may be, he runs his chisel up
against it and cuts it off, when it falls in
to the cup. 1t is then placed in an oiled
bag which is slung across the back OF
the gatherer. This arduous work contin-
ues without cessation during the months
mentioned, and so slow is the acCumula-
ton OF the gum by the collector, ordi-
narilv, that he considers himself fortu-
nate if he gathers a hundred pounds
month
Boston chews more spruce gum than
any other place in tie country, and deal
ers say that Chicago consumes the next
largest quantity. The great supply is OBJ
tanned in Bennington as a centre, but
the small numbering villages of Maine
send enormous quantities to market.
The lusty young axeman or logger of
the Maine lumber camps never returns
home from the woods without fetching
with him large lump of the choicest
spruce gum he can collect as gift to his
sweetheart, and his coming with the
Offering is anXiously awaited by her as
next to him she loves the fragrant resin
of the spruce. The lover who should
fail to pay this homage to his fair lady
would be hooteda aoutaoI =A1alne-I -Iunl-=
Der woods as a man unworthy the trust,
to say nothing of the affection, of the
gentle sex.
"They have in these isolated villages
pastime which they call the 'yanking
bee, which requires great tenacity of
jaw and power of endurance to enjoy. A
yanking bee is a gathering of young peo-
pie who meet for the avowed purpose of
yanking or chewing spruce gum. The
fun of the party consists in chewing the
gum in as large 'gObs' as the mouth can
hold, and accompanying the performance
with as loud noise as the lips can make
while the chewing is going on. A large
lump of prime spruce gum is the prize
which the person who chews the longest
and the loudest will win. After the yank
is over the fiddler comes in, and daylight
comes before the festivities of the bee
are over.
''Spruce gum, they assert in Maine
and other lumbering States, possesses
great medicinal properties, and they also
say there is nothing like it for indiges-
tion and disordered stomach. That is
mere matter of opinion, and it is rather
doubtful Lumbermen say that in ten
years there will be no more spruce gum
gathered for market because there will
be no more to gather. At the present
time, however, yoa may set it down as a
fact that there is still plenty of genuine,
unadulterated spruce gum sold to con-
sumers.n